Constitutional Court decides to proceed with case against PM

national April 02, 2014 00:00

By The Nation

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The Constitutional Court decided Wednesday to proceed with a petition against caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra who has been accused of breaching the charter with regard to the transfer of the National Security Council chief.

Constitutional Court judges voted unanimously to proceed with the petition.

The court demanded that Yingluck defend herself within 15 days.

Appointed Senator Paibul Nititawan and 28 other senators filed the petition, which alleged that Yingluck had breached the charter by ordering the transfer of NSC Secretary General Thawil Pliensri to an inactive advisory post at the PM’s Office.

The Supreme Administrative Court ruled that Yingluck’s order to remove Thawil as the NSC chief was unlawful.

The group of senators filed the petition following the Supreme Administrative Court’s ruling. The petition noted that the charter did not allow the government to transfer permanent officials for the sake of vested interests.

The senators alleged that Yingluck violated Articles 180, 182 (7), 268, 266 (2) and 266 (3) of the charter by transferring Thawi to an inactive post so that her brother-in-law Priewphan Damapong could win the post of national police chief.

Thawil’s post of NSC chief was given to then police chief Pol Gen Wichien Photphosri, who agreed to vacant his seat for Priewphan.

Article 266 (2) states that a minister cannot interfere in “the recruitment, appointment, reshuffle, transfer, promotion and elevation of a salary scale of a Government official holding a permanent position or receiving a permanent salary and not being a political official, or an official or employee of a Government agency, a State agency, a State enterprise, an undertaking of which the majority of shares are owned by the State, or a local Government organisation.”